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Two more collections of T&A from when your grandfathers were too young to watch it.

Ah, the good old stag reel. It seems that hundreds of these things have survived to be collected in DVD sets, and few do it as well as Cult Epics. As with their earlier releases spotlighting Bettie Page, the company has come out with another entertaining set of these once-underground “nudie cuties.” American Nudes volumes 1 and 2 are presented separately, but compliment each other very well.

Volume one focuses on short films shot in the 1940s and kicks off with an “educational” short called “They Wear No Clothes!” - it begins with the disclaimer “The aim of this film is neither to endorse nor to condemn Nudism, but to impartially present views concerning this sociological problem.” Yes, because calling it a “problem” is in no way condemning it. That’s the only condemnation to be found though, as the short is actually nothing more than an exploitative way to show off women undressing and lounging about in their birthday suits. The next short is actually kind of cool, with a good bit of underwater ballet going on as the topless girl in it is a mermaid. The rest run the gamut of the genre. Some are done in a humorous vein, some are set up to put a girl in a situation where she “accidentally” goes nude, and some are just plain-old “girl gets undressed for the camera” set-ups. There are 17 of these shorts found on volume one.

Volume two ventures into the 1950s. Unfortunately, that also means the onslaught of Irving Klaw films. I may be the only fan of this particular mini-genre of cinema that cannot stand the man’s work. He was a hack. Pure and simple, a total hack. His only claim to fame was that he helped kick off Page’s career. Granted, there’s not much one needs to do in this particular line of work other than turn the camera on and tell the girl to start stripping, but his stuff has always come off to me as stilted and boring. The volume starts with one of his more mundane ones before going into some of his apartment wrestling fetish stuff. Now, truth be told, some of the girls on here are still quite nice and they work for what they have to work with, but it just isn’t as appealing as the 1940s volume.

The quality of the films vary. A few are in remarkable shape for their age and situation. Others are a haven for scratches. Cult Epics includes a nice, breezy jazz score to accompany the films, which is nice. Otherwise, there are no extras on these discs.

American Nudes is pretty by-the-books as far as this genre goes, but as a fan, the more the merrier. Cult Epics and other companies like them are doing well to present and preserve as much of this on disc as they can, and even when it has to include Irving Klaw, I support them.

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